In acknowledgement of the growing trend of tiny, small form factor PCs, here's a list of some of the good ones out there as far as mini PCs are concerned. Starting off with the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming PC, which comes with a discrete AMD or NVIDIA GPU. The red-colored SKU (pictured alongside) is based on an AMD chipset sporting a Radeon R7 M275X graphics which can pump out true 4K (4096x2160) resolution visuals.
The green colored variant of the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming PC is based on an Intel chipset with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 graphics with 6GB GDDR5 memory to let you play most games in a respectable manner. How big are these two boxes? About 6cm high and 12cm wide. Pretty small, eh?
Ever wondered what an amalgamation of a sphere and cube would look like? Voila! The ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 is an attractive, well-designed mini PC with a glowing indicator ring around it. Don’t be fooled to think it only looks good as this tiny yet powerful PC packs in quite a performance punch.
On the shell of the ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere there are 4 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports in all, then we have a Gigabit ethernet port and two display options – an HDMI port and a DisplayPort. A mobile Intel Core i5 chip paired with 4GB of RAM and 500GB hard drive complete the package. And as you can see, you can pop open the globular hood and service the system's hard drive, RAM, among other things. Great option to explore if you want a tiny, unique-looking, globe-shaped PC to show off!
The Vivo PC from ASUS is an ultra-mini PC which combines premium looks with nicely designed form factor. Its top lid has a brushed aluminium finish in a circular concentric pattern which catches your eye immediately. Despite being a looker, the tiny PC also packs in all the performance horsepower you’d expect from a good PC.
The ASUS Vivo PC sports either an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, up to 16GB DDR3 RAM, 1TB HDD or 256GB SSD, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, and all the IO ports that can fit into its tiny frame. It also comes with above-average in-built speakers. And all this packed into a device that doesn’t way more than 1.2 kg. Totally rad!
This is the Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 is mainly a space-saving tiny PC aimed at business users. It's built well and comes with a good system configuration: Intel Core i5-4570T 2.9GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, and Intel HD 4600 graphics. The DVD writer snapped onto the ThinkCentre is an optional extra – you can buy it without the DVD drive, if you so desire.
Apart from support for all the latest wireless communication standards, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 also comes with a DisplayPort and VGA to plug in a monitor (which Lenovo sells combined with this unit). As you can see from the pictures, the chassis and outer shell of the ThinkCentre M73 is not only slim and trim but also made of metal and well built.
This is ASUS' very own mini-PC which has up to an Intel Core i7-4600U processor, SSD storage, and Google's Chrome OS. It is just a 12cm x 12cm box that’s 4cm high and comes with 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi, four USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0 and an SD card reader. The ASUS Chromebox is primarily aimed at consumers who want a non-traditional desktop computing experience.
The ASUS Chromebox comes in three SKUs offering varying Intel processors, but the ones running on Intel Core i chips are capable of outputting UHD resolution videos through the Chromebox’s DisplayPort at 3840x2160 pixels. The challenge here is more about getting used to Google’s Chrome OS than anything else. Ready to Redefine computing?
While we’re all enamoured by the myriad choices of mini PCs in front of us, let’s not forget the one that Apple’s been selling for close to a decade. Yes, the Mac mini hasn’t been updated since 2012 and it might be getting a platform refresh very soon, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s the cheapest Mac you can buy.
Its unibody design is perfectly crafted, its internals are upgradeable with ease, and it’s slimmer than probably all the mini PCs out there. Nothing beats it in terms of looks, and with the ability to dual-boot with Windows, and a host of connectivity options built-in, the Mac mini is worth considering as a uber-small, uber-slim PC for your living room.